CASA DE JUVENTUD ALESTE

Casa Juventud Aleste is a non-profit organization and association, which carries out a wide variety of programs related to education and social awareness covering an extensive range of leisure-time activities throughout all stages of education ( from childhood to adulthood) focusing especially on those who are at risk of social exclusion.
Our goals are the following:
• Implement projects based on community development applying different learning methodologies throughout entertainment and recreational activities for children as well as young and adult people
• Support the youth depending upon their specific needs: information, resources and non-formal education through outdoor activities
• Promote social and non-formal educational volunteerism as well as personal training on it
• Provide comprehensive training for the youth through educational work at leisure time
• Encourage social and professional integration of young people
• Enhance health, environmental and road safety education as well as commitment to association and sports
• Undertake projects related to causes of social exclusion: family breakdown, school failure, rejection of ethnic minorities and immigrants, unemployment, labour exploitation, discrimination of women, abuse of alcohol and drugs, abuse, sexual abuse, intolerance, racism, and to sum up everything concerning to the violation of human rights
Briefly, some programs that we are currently implementing are:
• “Comprehensive Program on Social Background”. Working with older children and adolescents in social and civic competences, preventing from marginalization. Therefore, we provide school support on extra-curricular activities and we apply non-formal educational values on our daily activities
• “Local Employability, Entrepreneurship and Entrance in the labour market”
• “Recreational, Educational and Social leisure-time activities” and “Holiday camps”
• “Sense of Initiative, Solidarity and Social awareness”
• “Promotion of Equal Opportunities to access at New sources of technology”
• “Promotion of Volunteering”

Since we started we have been growing and building up a broad networking space working with local community partners, the City Council.
Casa Juventud Aleste, has been working since it was founded in 1972 moreover on volunteerism. Currently more than 130 volunteers are part of our workforce. One of the core-competences of our association is volunteering because we aim to:
• Strength our institution as a Meeting Place for young people.
• Promote volunteering through training, support and establishing a voluntary model itself.
• Offering multiple alternatives of leisure-time activities for non-formal education.
• Set a transcultural and cooperative model education applying complete training based upon the local and environmental specific needs.
• Boost environmental experiences.
• Contribute to European youth mobility.
• Set European Volunteering Services.
• Promote the quality and the role of youth work in Europe
To achieve these objectives we implement some activities:
• Offer training and support so as to achieve a formal qualification in the field of leisure time.
• Specific and original training activities based upon our model of volunteering.
• Develop social and cultural awareness projects to promote volunteering in educational institutions (Schools, Universities) and non-educational Institutions.
• Seminars, conferences and contact-making events in the city focused on the importance of volunteering to boost a social transformation.
• Networking with the third sector and Governments to develop joint venture projects.
• Expand transnational participation of volunteers from different European countries in our organization promotes new skills and professional experience strengthening the quality and the role of youth work in Europe.